Genesis 49–50

JACOB’S LAST WORDS

49Then Jacob called his sons and said, “Gather around, and I will tell you what will happen to you in the days to come.^Es

²Come together and listen, sons of Jacob;

listen to your father Israel:

³Reuben, you are my firstborn,^t

my strength and the firstfruits of my virility,^u

excelling in prominence, excelling in power.

⁴Turbulent as water, you will not excel,

because you got into your father’s bed^v

and you defiled it—he^F got into my bed.

⁵Simeon and Levi are brothers;

their knives are vicious weapons.^a

⁶May I never enter their council;

may I never join their assembly.

For in their anger they kill men,

and on a whim they hamstring oxen.

⁷Their anger is cursed, for it is strong,

and their fury, for it is cruel!

I will disperse them throughout Jacob

and scatter them throughout Israel.^b

⁸Judah, your brothers will praise you.^c

Your hand will be on the necks of your enemies;

your father’s sons will bow down to you.^d

⁹Judah is a young lion^e—

my son, you return from the kill.

He crouches; he lies down like a lion

or a lioness—who dares to rouse him?

¹⁰The scepter will not depart from Judah

or the staff from between his feet

until he whose right it is comes^Af

and the obedience of the peoples belongs to him.^g

¹¹He ties his donkey to a vine,

and the colt of his donkey to the choice vine.

He washes his clothes in wine

and his robes in the blood of grapes.

¹²His eyes are darker than wine,

and his teeth are whiter than milk.

¹³Zebulun will live by the seashore

and will be a harbor for ships,

and his territory will be next to Sidon.^h

¹⁴Issachar is a strong donkey

lying down between the saddlebags.^B

¹⁵He saw that his resting place was good

and that the land was pleasant,

so he leaned his shoulder to bear a load

and became a forced laborer.ⁱ

¹⁶Dan will judge his people^j

as one of the tribes of Israel.

¹⁷Dan will be a snake by the road,

a viper beside the path,

that bites the horse’s heels

so that its rider falls backward.

¹⁸I wait for your salvation, Lord.

¹⁹Gad will be attacked by raiders,

but he will attack their heels.^k

²⁰Asher’s food will be rich,

and he will produce royal delicacies.^l

²¹Naphtali is a doe set free

that bears beautiful fawns.^m

²²Joseph is a fruitful vine,

a fruitful vine beside a spring;

its branches^D climb over the wall.^E

²³The archers attacked him,

shot at him, and were hostile toward him.

²⁴Yet his bow remained steady,

and his strong arms were made agile

by the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob,ⁿ

by the name of^F the Shepherd,^o the Rock of Israel,^p

²⁵by the God of your father who helps you,

and by the Almighty who blesses you

with blessings of the heavens above,

blessings of the deep that lies below,

and blessings of the breasts and the womb.

²⁶The blessings of your father excel

the blessings of my ancestors^A

and^B the bounty of the ancient hills.^Cq

May they rest on the head of Joseph,

on the brow of the prince of his brothers.

²⁷Benjamin is a wolf; he tears his prey.

In the morning he devours the prey,

and in the evening he divides the plunder.”^r

²⁸These are the tribes of Israel, twelve in all, and this is what their father said to them. He blessed them, and he blessed each one with a suitable blessing.

JACOB’S BURIAL INSTRUCTIONS

²⁹Then he commanded them, “I am about to be gathered to my people.^a Bury me with my ancestors^b in the cave in the field of Ephron the Hethite.^{c 30}The cave is in the field of Machpelah near Mamre, in the land of Canaan. This is the field Abraham purchased from Ephron the Hethite as burial property.^{d 31}Abraham and his wife Sarah are buried there,^e Isaac and his wife Rebekah are buried there,^f and I buried Leah there.^{g 32}The field and the cave in it were purchased from the Hethites.” ³³When Jacob had finished giving charges to his sons, he drew his feet into the bed, took his last breath, and was gathered to his people.

JACOB’S BURIAL

50Then Joseph, leaning over his father’s face, wept and kissed him. ²He commanded his servants who were physicians to embalm his father. So they embalmed Israel. ³They took forty days to complete this, for embalming takes that long, and the Egyptians mourned for him seventy days.^h

⁴When the days of mourning were over, Joseph said to Pharaoh’s household, “If I have found favor with you, please tell Pharaoh that ⁵my father made me take an oath,ⁱ saying, ‘I am about to die. You must bury me there in the tomb that I made for myself in the land of Canaan.’^j Now let me go and bury my father. Then I will return.”

⁶So Pharaoh said, “Go and bury your father in keeping with your oath.”

⁷Then Joseph went to bury his father, and all Pharaoh’s servants, the elders of his household, and all the elders of the land of Egypt went with him, ⁸along with all Joseph’s family, his brothers, and his father’s family. Only their dependents, their flocks, and their herds were left in the land of Goshen. ⁹Horses and chariots went up with him; it was a very impressive procession. ¹⁰When they reached the threshing floor of Atad, which is across the Jordan, they lamented and wept loudly, and Joseph mourned seven days for his father. ¹¹When the Canaanite inhabitants of the land saw the mourning at the threshing floor of Atad, they said, “This is a solemn mourning on the part of the Egyptians.” Therefore the place is named Abel-mizraim.^A It is across the Jordan.

¹²So Jacob’s sons did for him what he had commanded them. ¹³They carried him to the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave at Machpelah in the field near Mamre, which Abraham had purchased as burial property from Ephron the Hethite.^{k 14}After Joseph buried his father, he returned to Egypt with his brothers and all who had gone with him to bury his father.

JOSEPH’S KINDNESS

¹⁵When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said to one another, “If Joseph is holding a grudge against us, he will certainly repay us for all the suffering we caused him.”^l

¹⁶So they sent this message to Joseph, “Before he died your father gave a command: ¹⁷‘Say this to Joseph: Please forgive your brothers’ transgression and their sin—the suffering they caused you.’ Therefore, please forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father.” Joseph wept^m when their message came to him. ¹⁸His brothers also came to him, bowed down before him, and said, “We are your slaves!”

¹⁹But Joseph said to them, “Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God?^{n 20}You planned evil against me; God planned it for good to bring about the present result—the survival of many people.^{o 21}Therefore don’t be afraid. I will take care of you and your children.”^p And he comforted them and spoke kindly to them.^B

JOSEPH’S DEATH

²²Joseph and his father’s family remained in Egypt. Joseph lived 110 years. ²³He saw Ephraim’s sons to the third generation;^q the sons of Manasseh’s son Machir were recognized by^C Joseph.^r

²⁴Joseph said to his brothers, “I am about to die,^s but God will certainly come to your aid and bring you up from this land to the land he swore to give to Abraham,^t Isaac,^u and Jacob.”^{v 25}So Joseph made the sons of Israel take an oath: “When God comes to your aid, you are to carry my bones up from here.”^w

²⁶Joseph died at the age of 110. They embalmed him and placed him in a coffin in Egypt.